


As Our Lives Change (Come Whatever)

by Lavendergaia



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 18:51:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4030795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavendergaia/pseuds/Lavendergaia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As graduation approaches, Jemma Simmons is determined to beat Leo Fitz for the valedictorian spot. But commencement is a beginning and it's one that Jemma never expects.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As Our Lives Change (Come Whatever)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to ruthedotcom and fitzsimmonsy for betaing!
> 
> Title comes from the Vitamin C song "Graduation."

“5…4…3…2…1!”

A cheer rose up through the classroom as the final bell of the semester rang, echoing amongst the cries of the free. At her desk, Ms. May didn’t bother to look up from her laptop as her students sprang from their desks, talking excitedly. “Your final is on Tuesday,” she said without a hint of enthusiasm. “Remember, it is cumulative and there will be an essay.”

As Jemma stood up and slipped her bag over her shoulder, she glanced over at Fitz, who was shoving his tablet into his backpack. “So, I guess this is it then,” she said, a bit of nostalgia in her tone.

He glanced up sharply, surprise clear in his blue eyes. “Oh? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I guess it is. I mean, after the final and everything.”

“Finals will be the deciding factor, I suppose.” Jemma twisted a lock of her brown hair around her finger, wondering if she should take this last chance to psych him out. Realizing that would be unsportsmanlike of her, she just smiled at him. “It’s been a nice four years, Fitz.”

“Yeah.” He dragged his tongue over his lips slowly. “Has been. Uh, good luck studying.”

Nodding assuredly, she said, “You too. I’ll see you next week.” She headed to the door briskly, calling goodbye to Ms. May on her way.

Out in the hallway, the celebration was in full swing. Students of all years were reveling in the completion of the last full official day of school with pictures, music, and loud conversation. Before she could make it through the throng and to her locker, she was intercepted by Skye. “Can you believe it?” her friend shouted in her ear. “We are done with high school!”

Jemma laughed despite herself. “We have finals all next week.”

“Those don’t count,” Skye said, refusing to remove her arm from around Jemma’s shoulder and choosing instead to be dragged along to Jemma’s locker. “But all we have to do is take a few more tests and then we can graduate! Even me!” She sighed wistfully. “Coulson’s gonna be so proud.”

Grinning as she spun her combination lock, Jemma said, “All we have to do is study this entire weekend and ace our finals.”

Skye snorted loudly. “As if, I’m going to Grant Ward’s party tomorrow night.”

“Why on earth would you want to do that?” Jemma said with a groan. Skye matched the disgusted expression on her face until Jemma pushed her playfully. “That guy’s the worst.”

“I know, but his house is huge and they always have great music and food and everything. Plus, it’s our last high school party!”

“I thought Coulson was letting you throw a party on graduation night.”

Skye rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but by then we’ll have graduated. So that’s a post-high school party. Our last high school party means something.”

Jemma was sure that made sense in Skye world. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I wasn’t invited. And neither were any of our other friends who Grant Ward doesn’t want to hook up with.”

“Ew,” Skye said, scrunching up her face. “I’m not going to fuck Grant Ward. Not to go to his party or for any other reason. And so what if you weren’t invited?”

“What, you want me to sneak into his party?” Jemma pulled all of her textbooks out of her locker and stuffed them into her bag, glad that she cleaned her locker out periodically so this wasn’t such an ordeal. “I think he’s having security there and everything, the invitation supposedly had this special QR code that you have to scan to get in the door.”

Bouncing on the soles of her feet excitedly, Skye nudged Jemma’s shoulder as the grin practically split her face. “Check your phone.”

Jemma pulled her phone out of her pocket warily, not at all surprised to see she had an email waiting for her from Skye. Inside was what seemed to be an exact replica of Grant Ward’s invitation, down to the QR code. “Skye, did you…?”

Shrugging overly nonchalantly, Skye said, “Okay, look, he sent out a super techy invitation to his party and also didn’t invite any of my friends, he wanted me to do this!”

“How many people did you send this to?”

“Not that many. You, Trip, Bobbi, Hunter, everyone at the Rising Tide and like fifty others.” As Jemma’s jaw dropped in shock, Skye beamed at her. “It’s gonna be a _great_ party.”

As Jemma pulled all of the loose papers out of her locker, she couldn’t help but admit to herself that she couldn’t wait to see Grant Ward’s party completely overwhelmed by all the people he didn’t want there. “Okay,” she acquiesced. “But I have to study for the entire rest of the weekend!”

“Yes!” Skye threw her arms around Jemma, hugging her tightly. As Jemma hugged her back, she couldn’t help but think about how much she would miss her best friend when she left for university. Reminding herself it did no good to miss Skye when she was right there, she just hugged her back a bit tighter.

When Jemma finally finished cleaning out her locker, Skye led her off to the parking lot so that Jemma could drive them home. “We should go shopping tonight! Get all the good dresses before they’re gone.”

Holding back a groan, Jemma tried a diversionary tactic. “Don’t you need to clean out your locker, too?”

“Ugh, no, why would I do that? I’ve got what I need. I’ll save that for next week.”

“You mean you’re going to forget and the janitor is going to end up throwing out all of your things.”

“I’m glad we understand each other.” Skye tightened her hand around Jemma’s forearm and smiled cheekily. “Now, to the mall!”

Jemma held back a groan. “Skye, I really do have to study if I want to make valedictorian.”

Next to her, Skye instantly deflated. “Seriously? You haven’t figured that out yet?”

“Fitz and I still have the same GPA. Principal Hand said that if it remains the same after we take our finals, she’s just going to take whoever has the highest average on all of their finals and that person gets to be valedictorian since we’ve made it perfectly clear we’re not sharing the spot.” Jemma snorted. “Co-valedictorian, what’s even the point. So I have to study so I can do perfectly on all of these finals.”

Though she was visibly pouting, Skye said, “Ugh, fine. But, hey—if you can’t go to the mall to pick out a dress, does that mean I get to pick one out for you?”

Jemma glanced cautiously over at her friend only to find Skye staring at her with wide-eyed excitement. Maybe failing wouldn’t be so bad after all.

* * *

The party at Grant Ward’s place was—with Skye’s help—decidedly epic. The estate was situated on a large amount of acreage set back from any main road and cars were parked along the street—called, legally, Ward Way—that led directly to the mansion. Due to the technical interference, all of Skye and Jemma’s friends had ended up showing up and luckily the palatial house was big enough that they could even hope not to run into their generous host at all.

As she picked up what was assuredly an extremely fancy appetizer off of Trip’s abandoned plate (his face was currently occupied with Skye’s face) Jemma was glad that she had come. She had been aggressively studying up to the moment that Skye had turned up at her bedroom door with a tight purple dress and an order for her to get in the shower. But it was nice to get out of the house and be around friends and eat good food and feel pretty. She hadn’t felt this way since…since the last time Skye had dragged her out of the house.

Standing up from the couch to push away thoughts of how she was going to become a complete recluse without her best friend, Jemma decided that some mingling was in order. She breezed by the kitchen, not at all surprised to see Hunter and Mack standing by the keg. “Is there nowhere else you could be?” she said, clearly amused even as she grabbed an empty Solo cup of her own.

“He’s just here because he knows Bobbi has to come by eventually,” Mack said with a smirk.

“That’s—that is not true,” Hunter said, though he became very interested in pumping her drink. “Can’t allow Ward’s friends control of the keg, they’ll want to mix it with pinot grigio or something.”

Jemma tried to hide her giggle behind her sip as Mack rolled his eyes. “Sure, yeah, it’s not at all because you know Bobbi can’t say no to free beer.”

“That is an unfounded statement and I’ll trust you not to spread rumors about me.”

“If I see her, I’ll tell her where the good beer is,” Jemma said, toasting the two men with her cup. Mack toasted back and Hunter shot her a wink as she headed through the sliding glass doors the led out into the patio.

Despite the sudden onset of summer, there was still a crispness to the night. The large fire pit was lit and people were sitting around it, toasting marshmallows and what seemed to be parts of the buffet—stuffed mushrooms and escargot. She shook her head and went to go take another sip of her beer when she heard her name. “Jemma?”

Turning towards the voice, she instantly brightened. “Fitz!” She hadn’t expected him, but it made sense in retrospect. “Did you get one of Skye’s invitations too?”

“No, I mean, yeah, but uh, Ward invited me,” he said. She took a moment to take in his outfit. Rather than the usual scholarly sweater and trousers he wore to school, he was wearing more casual jeans and a leather jacket over a button down. She hadn’t even known he owned a leather jacket. The patio was well-lit enough that she could see a hint of stubble on his cheeks and she vaguely wondered if he didn’t shave on the weekends and why he still smelled as good as he normally did if that wasn’t the scent of his aftershave.

Realizing she had let the conversation hang a moment too long, she raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re friends with Ward?”

“I used to tutor him,” Fitz said with a shrug. “Not nearly as cool as being one of the party crashers. He’s totally freaking out and trying to pretend he’s not totally freaking out.”

Jemma had to grin at that. “I love a plan well executed.” She was glad that Fitz laughed and seemed to be amused by their joke. “I thought you would be home studying.”

He shrugged again, as if the idea had no interest to him. “Thought _you_ would be.”

“Skye is persuasive.” She took a sip of her drink and when his eyes followed the cup, she held it out to him. “Want some?”

To her surprise, he took the red cup from her, swigging back a gulp. “Didn’t take you much for the beer type.”

“I’m really not,” she admitted, but she drank some anyway when he handed it back. “It’s part of Skye’s mission tonight.” When he just raised an eyebrow at her, she said, “It was on her invitation. Tonight you have to do something that you wish you had done in high school.”

“And you want to drink beer?”

“Not just that,” she insisted. It sounded silly when he said it that way. “I mean, I’ve been to parties before but I’ve never…let loose. I’ve never drank or really allowed myself to enjoy a bit of wildness that Skye always has. So tomorrow is back to studying but tonight is my night.”

To her surprise, he seemed to understand as he nodded thoughtfully. “And what’s Skye doing?”

Jemma smiled fondly. “Skye is actually the designated driver for tonight.” As Fitz’s eyebrows rose practically to his hairline, she laughed. “I know, I know! But someone had to be, I’m wild tonight. And she’s sleeping over at my place so that she can study with me all day tomorrow because her goal for something she’s never done in high school is to actually ace one of her finals.”

As Jemma drank down most of the rest of the cup, Fitz grinned. “That’s great. She’s lucky to have you.”

Handing the cup to him again, she let her hand drift over his chest for a minute. It was warmer than she expected and the fabric of his shirt was an intensely soft cotton. “What about you, Fitz?” she said, poking his sternum playfully. “What’s something you never did in high school that you always wanted to do?”

Fitz drained the rest of the cup slowly before crushing the plastic and tossing it into a nearby trash bin. Slowly licking the beer foam off his top lip, he seemed to be thinking intently about her question. Then he wrapped his hand around the back of her head and leaned in to kiss her.

She managed to hold back her cry of surprise at feeling his lips upon hers, too overwhelmed by the actual sensations. They were soft and hot, insistent but not demanding; even still, she found herself immediately kissing him back. Her heart pounded away in her ears, but she still thought she heard his sharp intake of breath as she leaned into him; his hand tightened in her hair and for the briefest of moments his tongue slid across her lower lip.

When he took several steps back, Jemma watched him through lidded eyes. It felt like she couldn’t regain her breath as she stared at his flushed cheeks, his unnaturally bright eyes, his tongue that continuously darted out to wet his lips. She felt more than dazed, but knew that couldn’t be attributed to the beer. “Good night, Jemma,” Fitz said softly and her heart sunk in disappointment. “I’ll see you Monday.”

She nodded as he headed for the side of the house and she watched him go until he was too far away to spot in the darkness of the night. Immediately, she turned around and headed back for the keg. The latent roaring in her ears was just as much wild as she could handle tonight.

* * *

Ms. May’s history final was the last one she had on Tuesday and one of the last ones she had at all—AP Literature was left for Wednesday and she only had to turn in a portfolio for that. When she walked into May’s classroom, Fitz was standing next to May at her desk, talking quickly and lowly. Jemma let her eyes sweep over his body before she took her seat.

Although she’d seen him several times since Saturday’s party—they had almost every class together—they hadn’t spoken more than a few words to each other. They’d chatted a bit about their finals, wished each other luck, but hadn’t even settled into their usual bickering about points and who was going to come out on top. Their conversations were polite, but short and stilted.

She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the kiss.

It had invaded her thoughts and her dreams for the past three days. Whenever she closed her eyes, she was assaulted by the memory of his mouth on hers, the smell of him surrounding her, the taste of the beer he’d left lingering on her lips. It had been distracting, to say the least. The more cynical part of Jemma thought he might have done it just to throw her off her game for finals, but she didn’t think Fitz was that ruthless. She was fairly sure neither one of them would have anticipated her reaction to be quite so persistent.

She froze in her seat as he took his desk next to her. Still, she couldn’t help glancing out of the corner of her eye as he hung his backpack off the chair; he didn’t really _seem_ any different than any other day or any other final. Had the fluorescent lighting always caught on his cheekbones like that? Jemma continued to surreptitiously watch him as he pulled his mechanical pencils out of his bag. “So, I guess this is it,” he said, leaning back in the plastic seat.

“Oh, I guess so.” Ms. Hartley was allowing them to drop off their portfolios anytime throughout the day tomorrow, as long as it arrived before what would technically be the final bell; Skye had actual exams until noon so Jemma was going to bring hers in around that time so they could go out for a post-finals lunch. “The last hurrah, I suppose.”

“Yeah.” He bounced the eraser end of his pencil against the desk. “Good luck, Jemma. I’m sure you’ll do well.”

She smiled at him warmly, attributing the swirl of emotions in her stomach to the nervousness of taking her exam and the melancholy of her last day of high school rather than anything else. “You too.”

They fell silent as Ms. May started handing out their test. Like it had during all her other finals, Fitz’s presence felt like a looming mass of energy existing only to draw her attention. She fought against it to make it through the questions, her eyes only drifting over to him when he packed up his stuff to turn his test in after what seemed to be an amazingly short time. To her surprise, not only did he smile at her when he left, he winked at her as well.

Well, that certainly was going to make its way into her dreams.

* * *

“I’ll see you after the ceremony,” Jemma said, giving her mum and dad kisses on their cheeks. “I have to go get my valedictorian sash.”

“We’re so proud of you, dear,” her mum said.

Jemma couldn’t help but feel immensely proud as well as she made her way through the crowds of her fellow graduates. A few people stopped to congratulate her until Ms. May waved her over, holding up a golden sash. She went breathless as she saw it, stumbling in her heels as she approached her teacher. “Is that…?”

“Your valedictorian sash,” Ms. May said, smiling lightly. “Congratulations, Ms. Simmons. You deserve it.”

Jemma beamed with pride as May slipped it over her shoulders and admired the way the gold contrasted against the black of the graduation robes. “Thank you so much,” she gushed, running her hands lightly over the glossy satin material.

May adjusted her honors cords around it, then double-checked her cap. “You scored the best on my exam, you know,” she said and Jemma only smiled wider. Of course, she did. Yet another thing to graciously rub in Fitz’s face. “It’s interesting though,” May mused. “Fitz came to talk to me right before the exam to make sure it was still a 50 question test because he had calculated that he could miss 37 questions and still not drop to an A-.” She looked Jemma straight in the eye, her expression completely neutral. “He missed 38.”

An unknown feeling of distress swooped low in Jemma’s stomach and when she opened her mouth, no sound came out. May just smoothed out her sash and said, “I shouldn’t be telling you that anyway. Congratulations again on four years of hard work, Ms. Simmons.”

She was left standing there by herself, desperately wishing that her dress had had pockets so she could have her phone to text Skye. Before she could try to find her in the crowd of students, Principal Hand was waving her over to where Ward and Fitz were already standing by the steps to the stage; they were to walk on first and lead the processional. Only she and Ward, who was student body president, were giving speeches, but his vice president Raina and Fitz as salutatorian were entitled to sit on stage as well.

As Principal Hand went to help the rest of the faculty coral the students into alphabetical order, Jemma rocked anxiously in her heels. Next to her, Fitz cleared his throat. “I just wanted to say congratulations, Jemma. I’m really happy for you.” He reached out to flick one end of her valedictorian sash, smiling shyly.

For a moment, Jemma stared at him, unable to find any words to speak. “Thank you,” she said finally. “It was close. You deserve this. Not—not that you deserve second place,” she quickly corrected herself and he chuckled under his breath. “You just…you deserve to be up there. We both worked really hard. It could have easily been you.” When he crossed his arms over his chest, she raised an eyebrow at him. “Right?”

“I mean, yeah, sure. If you had screwed up more.” He tried to smirk at her, tugging anxiously on one of his ears. “I kind of bombed May’s exam. I’m not sure I got a single question right.”

Her throat went dry and she cleared it as softly as she could. “Not a single one?”

“Well, a couple, I checked with her and she told me I didn’t drop below an A- in the class.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, pleading with him. “We studied for that AP exam together and there wasn’t anything on May’s exam that we didn’t cover. My flashcards are very in depth. You know that material, Fitz.”

Shrugging, he stared at his shoes, the leather shining bright for the special occasion. “I was just…I was up late the night before, studying for other exams and…and trying to get my English portfolio together is all. Didn’t study at all for May’s test, thought I wouldn’t have to even brush up… but I guess I did. It’s my own fault.” When he looked up at her, his blue eyes were serious and intense. “You deserve it. You always have.”

She licked her bottom lip slowly and his eyes followed the path of her tongue. Swallowing hard, she said, “Thank you.”

Raina joined them soon after and helped Jemma touch up her lipstick before they were escorted up on to the stage. The four of them had seats slightly left of center stage, so that they weren’t blocked from view by the podium and her chair was positioned so that when she crossed her legs under her gown, her foot brushed against Fitz’s leg.

She faded in and out through most of the opening of the ceremony. There was the introduction by Principal Hand, the National Anthem (she wasn’t even American), another speech by…someone from the school board? She really wasn’t paying attention. She didn’t snap out of her stupor until Tony Stark came to give the commencement speech. It still amazed her that someone had gotten him to agree to come to their high school, but he was someone worth listening to. Next to her, Fitz was paying rapt attention, his eyes fixed on Stark’s every motion. Jemma couldn’t help but watch Fitz instead, a smile playing on her face at his obvious delight.

Her gaze didn’t leave Fitz all through Ward’s speech and she hadn’t even been aware she was staring until Fitz glanced over at her, rolling his eyes. Biting her bottom lip, she held back a snicker and kicked him lightly. He nudged her back, his warm hand coming to rest on her knee and her speech flew out of her head.

“Good luck,” he mouthed as Principal Hand resumed the podium again to introduce her. As Hand talked about her accomplishments—her perfect GPA, her school record amount of AP classes (tied with Fitz), her early admission to MIT—Jemma couldn’t him but feel proud. Pulling out the small, folded speech she had kept in her heel, she smiled at Fitz and walked to the podium to thunderous applause.

She had memorized her speech and as she stood in front of her peers, their family, and the faculty, the words came flooding back to her. It was easy to articulate the words once she was actually experiencing them; they felt truer with the golden valedictorian sash snug around her shoulders. She tried to keep it relatively short—Skye’s idea, if she was being honest, but considering how long this ceremony already was, certainly not a bad one—but she thought her words were making an impact nonetheless.

“It’s easy right now to feel like we know everything. Most of you have accused me of acting like I know everything at least once—my best friend does it at least once a week.” That got a small titter of laughter and she smiled. “But don’t forget to let the world surprise you. Don’t forget to…to let people surprise you.” She resisted the urge to turn around and look at Fitz, but could feel his eyes boring into her back. “Most importantly, don’t forget to surprise the world. Thank you. Congratulations.”

The applause was deafening and she took a moment to appreciate it before turning to return back to her chair, only to see Fitz was standing. He was giving her a standing ovation. Her heart was stuck in her throat as she watched him clap, his face thoughtful. Instantly, his eyes met hers, carrying her stare until she sat down beside him. “That was…that was a good speech,” he whispered.

She looked up at him through her eyelashes, pink and flustered. “Thank you.”

The rest of the ceremony was a blur of names, people she only recognized through vague association. She clapped for her friends when they got their diplomas: Skye, Trip, Bobbi, Hunter, Mack. Fitz was the first of the four onstage to be called and Jemma applauded loudly; it was perhaps the only thing she and Ward had in common. When it was her own turn, she was stunned to hear the cheers from her peers—perhaps it was only Skye and Trip, but it was enough to make her feel even more special as she shook hands with the principal and accepted her temporary diploma.

As Principle Hand was giving her final speech, Raina leaned over to Jemma and said, “Take your pins out.”

“What? Why?” she hissed back.

“Otherwise you won’t be able to get your cap off when we go to throw them when Hand finally shuts up.”

“We’re not supposed to do that,” Fitz said. “They said it was against the rules.”

Raina rolled her eyes. “What are they going to do, not let us graduate? We’re done!”

Jemma and Fitz exchanged a look and she shrugged. “Wild, remember?” she said lowly, surreptitiously reaching for the bobby pins at the front of her cap. “Get the ones in the back?”

Only hesitating a second, Fitz’s long fingers were soon in the back of her hair, gently, tenderly removing the bobby pins. Between the two of them, they had the graduation cap simply perching on the top of her head before Principal Hand had finished speaking, inviting them all to stand to accept their new role as graduates.

The rumor was that Skye had started the cap throwing but every time Jemma asked her, Skye just shrugged and smiled mysteriously. When the wave of hats went up through the crowd, Ward, Raina, Fitz, and Jemma also threw theirs. Jemma laughed, watching as they soared up near the top of the stage curtain. Fitz managed to catch them both deftly, presenting Jemma’s to her with a smug grin.

Neglecting to take it from him, instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. In her heels, they were almost the same height, she acknowledged with the last working bit of her brain as she slid her tongue across his bottom lip. Fitz groaned, dropping the caps and wrapping his arms around her waist. As his face tilted into hers, she sighed happily and his tongue licked its way into her mouth. He tasted like cinnamon gum, which she normally hated, but she could see herself starting to crave it like oxygen.

Raina bumped her shoulder as she walked past her to the stage’s stairs. Jemma wasn’t sure if she had done it on purpose, but either way it pulled her out of the reverie of the kiss. Breaking away from Fitz slowly, she smiled when it took a moment to get his eyes to focus on her. “Jemma…”

“Are you going to Skye’s party?” she asked, breathless.

He nodded quickly, hands still fisting her robes at her hips. “Yeah. I mean, yeah, course.”

“Then I’ll see you there.” She gave him another light kiss before easing herself out of his grip. After grabbing her cap off the floor, she hurried off the stage and into the crowd below. She was searching for her parents, but the first person who found her was Skye.

Her friend quickly swept her up into a hug and Jemma held her tightly. “You were so great up there!” Skye said and not for the first time Jemma was thrilled that her friend was so enthusiastic about everything. Leaning in close, Skye whispered in her ear. “You and Fitz?”

When Jemma stared at her, aghast, Skye just rolled her eyes. “Jemma, you were on stage, not hiding in a closet. People saw.”

Jemma turned bright red at the thought of all eyes on her. “Oh god.”

“I’m sure not many people,” Skye suggested. “We just graduated, people have their own stuff going on. But seriously.” She nudged her gently, her grin betraying her eagerness. “You and Fitz. When? How? Details!”

Overwhelmed by the questions and her own emotional reactions to them, she just shook her head. Before she could try to find anything to say, Skye muttered, “Your parents are right behind you.” Skye ran her thumb over Jemma’s lip line to touch up what Jemma knew must be horribly smudged lipstick, then reached up to adjust the curls that had fallen out of Jemma’s updo. She winked at her friend before calling out over her shoulder, “Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Simmons.”

“I’ll tell you everything at the party later,” Jemma whispered under her breath before turning to greet her parents.

“Oh, you’d better.”

* * *

After dinner with her parents, Jemma was released to go to Skye’s party. In the midst of the barrage of “Congratulations” and “Awesome speech” texts she had received over the course of the day, she had gotten only one from Skye: “Red dress.”

Coulson had given Skye free reign of the house for her party with the only caveat being no alcohol—there was already two dozen people there when she arrived, food and drinks everywhere. Skye waved to her from a cluster of people and pizza boxes and though Jemma waved back, her friend wasn’t her objective tonight.

Skye’s house was as familiar to her as her own and she wandered throughout the main floor. It probably shouldn’t have surprised her to find Fitz in the kitchen with Mack and Trip, the latter of whom whistled as she walked in. “Damn, girl,” he said, eyeing her up and down in her red mini-dress. “Where were you hiding this?”

She shrugged a shoulder demurely, keeping her eyes on Fitz. He gaped at her, eyes wide, and she couldn’t help but take that as a good sign. “Hi, Fitz.”

“Hi,” he said, licking his lips. “You look, I…” Clearing his throat, he ducked down to the cooler in front of him and pulled out a can. “Drink?”

“Sure.” Clutching the Sprite, she smiled at him. “Do you want to, you know, go talk?”

Nodding quickly, he said, “Yeah, let’s…let’s do that.”

Skye’s room was on the other side of the house—as they passed the hostess in the living room, Jemma nodded towards Fitz and the general direction of the bedrooms, receiving a thumbs up from her best friend. For once, Skye had even straightened up, her bed made and only a small amount of laundry on the floor. Jemma shut the door behind them and for a minute, neither of them spoke.

“You failed May’s test on purpose,” she finally said and Fitz was so surprised that it finally drew his gaze from the wooden floors below them.

He seemed like he was going to protest, but then sighed. “Yeah, I did. I wanted you to be valedictorian.”

“But why? We’ve been fighting over this for four years, why change your mind now?” Swallowing hard, she said, “Is it…is it because we kissed? Because—”

“That’s not it,” he said quickly, interrupting her. “I mean, it is, but it’s not…” He cut himself off with a groan, running both hands through his hair. “I knew you wanted it. You wanted it more. And I didn’t want to be the person to stand between you and anything you wanted.” Smiling to himself more than her, he said, “Seeing you so happy today, it was worth it.”

It was suddenly difficult to take deep breaths; every time he smiled at her it got a little harder. “So you just failed for me? Because you could?”

“It wasn’t that hard. I knew all the answers, I just chose to get some wrong.” She rolled her eyes at his smugness, but had to admit it was growing on her very fast. “It only brought me down to an A-; it’s not like MIT is going to take away my scholarship or anything. I didn’t want to fight with you anymore and it just seemed easier that way. I wanted you to get what you deserved.”

“Thank you,” she said softly and he just shrugged. Staring down at her feet, she said, “So, when you kissed me the other night…”

“I’ve wanted to do that since freshman year.”

Her eyes snapped up to his and the intensity of the blue almost hurt to stare at. “But you—you never—I didn’t know— _how_ could I have known—” Shaking her head to try and clear the shock, she said, “You didn’t ask me out or even hint at it!”

He laughed humorlessly. “All we did was fight over grades! Fight and bicker in discussions and try to one up each other. I didn’t think you liked me like that. It’s not like you were flirting with me.”

Frankly, she was a bit startled to find that that was how she flirted and that she had been doing just that this whole time. “If you had asked me out, I would have said yes.” Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, she added, “I still would have beat you for valedictorian, too.”

He rolled his eyes at her, but took a step closer so that he was in her personal space, staring straight into her eyes. “It’s not that I didn’t think you were going to get it; I just didn’t want to risk it. If it came down to the two of us and our finals, well, I failed. It’s all yours. I don’t want to be your competition.”

She realized she was holding her breath as she stared back at him. “What do you want to be?”

This time when he kissed her, she was prepared. Jemma leaned into the kiss, meeting his lips with hers, sighing as they caressed her mouth. Her arms went around his neck, drawing him closer and his hands soon moved from a respectful position at her waist to wrap around her body. His large palms spread flat against her back, supporting her as he deepened the kiss. She moaned into his mouth, sweeping her tongue across his and his fingers clutched at the tight material of her dress.

Jemma broke the kiss first, but only so she could start moving her mouth down his neck, reveling in the nighttime stubble on his jaw that brushed against his cheek. When she bit at his Adam’s apple, he whimpered, then seemed to find his voice. “I want…I mean, well, we’re both going to MIT in the fall and—” he let out a sharp gasp when she found a sensitive spot, “—and summer is really quite long, so I thought maybe…maybe…”

Pulling back enough so she could look him in the eye, Fitz winced and shrugged, smiling sheepishly. “Maybe you’d like to have dinner sometime? With me. On a date.”

Her shoulders relaxed and she kissed his cheek. “I’d like that, Fitz.”

She could have stayed locked in Skye’s room forever, but she knew her friend was going to come looking for her eventually and it was possible she would bring an audience. Giving Fitz a lingering kiss, she gestured toward the door said, “Do you want to get back?”

“Not really.” She had to laugh at his grumpy expression and that got him to smile just a bit. “I mean, it’s just…”

“I know.” She leaned her head on his shoulder for just a moment before stepping back and taking his hand. “But, you know, I don’t have school for like three months. So if you’re not busy tomorrow and you’d like to come over—”

“Yes,” he said immediately.

Grinning, she tightened her fingers around his. “Right then.”

As she led him back into the hallway, he leaned in close, whispering in her ear, “I really like your dress.”

Skye was still in the living room when they joined the rest of the party and she waved to them from the couch when she saw them. “Move,” she said to the other people on the couch, giving them a shove so that Jemma and Fitz would have room to sit. She leaned against Jemma’s side when she sat down, linking their arms. Skye clearly noticed the way that Jemma had not let go of Fitz’s hand and made it all the more obvious when she raised her eyebrows and said, “Hi!”

“Hi,” Jemma said, giddiness stronger than her embarrassment. She squeezed Fitz’s hand tightly and he relaxed next to her, his thumb gently caressing her skin.

“Congrats again, Jemma,” Bobbi said. She and Hunter had both managed to squeeze into Coulson’s Laz-E-Boy and she had never seen quite that smile on his face. “You too, Fitz.”

As Fitz shrugged, Jemma nudged him gently with her knee. “It really was very close,” she said. “I’m not sure there’s really anyone who came out on top here. I think we both won.”

Fitz rolled his eyes at her, bumping her back. “C’mon, just enjoy it, you really won.”

After a moment, she smiled widely at him. “Yeah,” she insisted meaningfully, biting her bottom lip when his cheeks turned red. “I did.”


End file.
